listed on that document but it doesn't distract from the fact. the fact still remains it's very simple, mitt romney left bain in 1999. >> but who's sorry now? not president obama. >> you're not going to apologize? >> no, we won't be apologizing. >> the president campaigns today in cincinnati. trailing him in ohio, senator bob portman. does portman now top the list of possible running mates? and has mitt romney already made up his mind? we'll talk to the experts. plus in israel today, hillary clinton tries to mend fences with prime minister netanyahu after meeting egypt's new president over the weekend and facing anti-american protesters in alexandria. and who pulled the plug on the boss and sir paul? what were london police thinking when they killed the mikes in the middle of the hyde park

encore? good day. i'm andrea mitchell live in washington. in our daily fix today, mitt romney's campaign is trying to turn the focus away from romney's personal finances and tenure at bain capital with a coordinated attack today on what they call the president's political cronyism. but the obama campaign is not letting up. this afternoon in cincinnati, the president is going to be racheting up the so-called outsourcing attacks in his first town hall of his re-election campaign. chris cillizza is an msnbc contributor and managing editor of postpolitics.com. welcome back, chris. nbc's peter alexander covers the romney campaign, of course, for us. chris, first to you. let's talk about the new strategy coming from the obama camp from what we've heard today. >> well, i think what president obama continues to do and you played the clip on the front end, is we're not going to apologize. we're going to stay on this. they will continue to stay on it. want to know why? know what we're not talking about is the jobs report. we're not talking about the

economy. we're talking about mitt romney, how transparent is he being, is he not being transparent enough, and we're talking broadly about the fact that this is someone who is of significant wealth. the whole tax issue plays in that. you are seeing the obama folks calling for mitt romney to release his tax returns, to explain more. i think this is just not a good story line, not a good narrative for mitt romney. it's not a zero sum game in politics but in campaigns it's close to it, so a bad story line for mitt romney tends to be a good story line for barack obama. if the obama folks will continue, he'll continue to push this for as long as they can get traction on it. >> of course, the whole question of the tax returns, mitt romney has released the one year, he says he'll release another year. peter alexander, you talked to him on friday. over the weekend, george will, among other republicans, let's play a little of what they said about getting this off the table. >> if something's going to come

out, get it out in a hurry. i do not know why, given that mr. romney knew the day that mccain lost in 2008 that he was going to run for president, that he didn't get all of this out. >> release the tax returns tomorrow, it's crazy. you've got to release six, eight, ten years of back tax returns. >> you talked to him on friday and this is your questions to him about whether he'll release more of his tax returns. >> john mccain ran for president and released two years of tax returns. john kerry ran for president. you know, his wife -- >> i just want to clarify this, then. after february of 1999, you never attended a single meeting for bain, a business meeting, even by phone, attended a meeting regarding bain or bain controlled entities? >> you've asked quite a few questions there so let's go through it. i didn't involve myself in any way with bain capital's enterprise after february of 1999. >> on the tax returns and on when he left bain capital.

>> he tried to make it very clear he had no involvement with bain capital after 1999, when the company began outsourcing jobs. on the issue of taxes, i said to him when you were vetted four years ago by john mccain, you gave his campaign 23 years of tax returns. why wouldn't you share that with the american people. he had an answer, saying i have given all i'm going to give, i'm not going to give the obama folks any more opposition research on me. i know they're just going to dig through these things. in 1994, when he was running against ted kennedy for senate, he was the one who made an issue of tax returns and said ted kennedy should be the one releasing more tax returns as well. nonetheless, this is not the issue he wants to be talking right now which is the very reason his campaign have a conference call with us earlier today attacking the president for this crony capitalism as we were talking about as well. >> do you have any indication from them, you were on that conference call with them, you have been talking to them, any indication they are going to change their mind because of some republican pressure as well, and release any more of the tax returns?

>> it doesn't sound like it. doesn't sound like they will release any more tax returns and a lot of prominent conservatives have said if you're not going to do it, you have to not do it at all but if you do it, do it now and get it over with. the conversation you heard there is it will be done in a couple of days. the question they have to answer for themselves is whether or not they know it would be done in a couple days and what could be found in those tax returns going forward. but what the conversation i had with the senior romney advisor i thought was interesting. i asked how they viewed friday's round robin of interviews, four by satellite, i was there, the only one in person looking him into the eyes. the last interview i did, and by that point, he was over it. it was clear he was not happy to be talking about this any longer than he had to. going forward, they believe that the people that can still be persuaded don't care about this issue of bain. they care about the jobs issue and hope that that's the issue we get back to. >> chris cillizza, at this point, do you think is it penetrating? clearly the obama team thinks that it's working for them. >> you know, i think peter is broadly right.

the romney people don't think that this matters. earlier this morning, gale said this isn't what people care about. that's probably right as it relates specifically to bain. i'm not sure people make their decision in this election about bain capital and mitt romney's association with it. but broadly, his business record, what he's done, can he relate to average people, does he understand the economic anxieties that they feel. bain is a piece of that broader puzzle. so i don't think you can dismiss it so easily. >> chris cillizza, peter alexander, thanks for setting us up today. some high profile republican governors who are meeting in williamsburg over the weekend for the national governors conference had tough love for mitt romney. wisconsin's scott walker and alabama's robert bentley both want him to be more aggressive. governor bentley said that he should be releasing his tax returns so that he can then move on. >> the best thing to do is just get everything out in the open and just say hey, i have nothing to hide and i'm going to release my tax returns.

>> joining me now, virginia governor and republican governors association chair, bob mcdonnell, who of course was mayor as the most governor in virginia. thanks, governor. good to see you. let's talk about that. what do you say to governor bentley and some of the others who think mitt romney has to be more aggressive in going on the attack against the obama tax and also, to just release these tax returns so he can get back to his campaign message? >> well, i think that decision is up to mitt romney. he's released 500 pages more than what the norm might be. here's the big point, though. americans aren't concerned about mitt romney's tax returns. they're concerned about their tax returns and the new taxes that obama is putting on the american people, nearly every small business in america, all 900,000 of them, with this new proposal, 21 new taxes totalling $500 billion in medicaid, and they're not concerned that much

about bain. that's a job that he had 12 years ago. they're concerned about their own jobs today. 8.1% now for the last 41 months, unacceptable. no leadership. and we're falling behind india and china in our growth rate. that's what people are concerned about. here's the thing. the bigger the issues get faced in the country, the smaller the president gets in his campaign message. it's wrong. he ought to pull these silly ads off the air and start talking about jobs and taxes and energy. that's what mitt romney is talking about. that's what people will vote on in virginia. >> with all due respect, getting back to the issue of whether or not he should release his tax returns, he may have more pages in his tax return that he did release because he has a more complicated tax return but he's released less than the norm. the norm is to release more and in fact, john mccain did two tax returns, two years of the gold standard was george romney in 1968, who said he was releasing 12 because anything less than that could be a fluke.

so why get caught up in this whole issue and not just release it? is it because he's concerned about some hits he might take because as a lot of wealthy people do, he has tax shelters and perhaps some years didn't pay as much as other people paid percentage-wise? >> andrea, listen, i tell you, we know a couple things about mitt romney. he's been very successful. he's made a lot of money. we also know from the returns that he released that he's paid all the taxes that were due and he gave about 15% of his income to charity, that he's a generous guy. but people are not -- people are concerned about the future of america. our country's in trouble. we got 25 million people -- >> why not just release the tax returns? >> because we're not going to respond to every single new challenge that comes out of the obama campaign. >> george will? bill kristol? >> look, it's up to mitt romney what he wants to do. that's not the issue in the

race. it's about how do we get the greatest country on earth out of debt, back to work, a good energy plan, and have stronger leadership on the national stage. that's what people are going to vote on. this president's i think undermining the decency and dignity of the electoral process, focusing on a 12-year-old job and old tax returns. that's not -- that may be what obama thinks important but that's not what the voters of virginia think important. i lived for 18 years where president obama just was this last weekend, in virginia beach. they're not asking me about that. they're saying how do we get back to work, how do we create energy independence and how do we get out of debt. this president's racheted up debt, trillions of dollars in new debt, that's what's important. this president's got no leadership when it comes to getting us out of debt. it's more excuses and more hide the ball. listen, i understand it. if i had a lousy record of unemployment over 8% for that

long, and i had racked up $5 trillion in debt i would be trying to hide the ball and get somebody to talk about something else, too. that's not what's important. it's not what the independent voters are going to vote on. >> governor, let's talk about the vice presidency and whether or not mitt romney has even decided. do you have the sense he's decided? has he mcommunicated to you tha you are on or not on the ticket? >> i know we had this conversation before. that's completely up to mitt romney. i'm done talking about it. >> it could be the one time where you would -- >> i know. you're doing a great job. there's only one list that matters. it's mitt romney. i can tell you what i'm working on is getting mitt romney a victory in virginia and winning about 12 governors races as chairman of the rga. that's my goal. >> you were around all the governors this weekend and you talked to everybody down there in virginia. would you rather see an announcement sooner than later? there's one school of thought that he should announce sooner. it will first of all change the

topic. we will all be talking about the vice presidency and the rollout of the running mate and maybe a good idea to do this before he goes out of the country for the london olympics. what do you think? >> well, he's doing more than going to the olympics. he's also meeting with leaders of the free world like david cameron, and he's going to israel to meet with benjamin netanyahu to make sure our strategic partners who get disappointed from time to time on where the united states is, that we shore up those relationships. listen, that's completely up to mitt romney. people don't vote on vice president. they vote on the leadership of the president and what they'll do on jobs, taxes and spending and these other areas. that's completely up to him. it's going to be decided on these serious issues. this is a time for competent and confident leadership and not the finger pointing and the blame game that we've got out of this president. that's what's going to matter, not who's vice president. >> thank you very much, governor

mcdonnell. >> okay, andrea. >> give me a call when you get the call. up next, president obama will be in ohio. we are on the road with the obama camp. >> a coney with cheese. anybody else? is that it? you want something? what do you want? two coneys with cheese. no, i got to pay. that's the rule. they would come and arrest you if i don't pay. the first trade route to the west, the greatest empires. then, some said, we lost our edge. well today, there's a new new york state. one that's working to attract businesses and create jobs. a place where innovation meets determination...

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president obama in cincinnati today has no plans to back off his attacks on mitt

romney's business record and his tax policies. jen is the traveling press secretary for the obama campaign and former white house deputy communications director and joins us from cincinnati. great to see you. did you get any of that cincinnati chili? >> we already had chili. we have not yet had graters ice cream but hopefully we'll have some of that, too. >> we love to eat in cincinnati. there are you in ohio, nothing could be more important than ohio if not -- well, ohio, virginia, they're all important, but ohio particularly important. >> they're all important. >> mitt romney again today pushing his complaint, his argument, that the president and the white house have been guilty of crony capitalism. let me play a little bit of that for you. >> this is a tough time for the people of america, but if you're a campaign contributor to barack obama, your business may stand to get billions of dollars or hundreds of millions of dollars in cash from the government. i think it's wrong. i think it stinks to high heaven.

>> so that was mitt romney today laying out the charge. you've got a response. >> well, andrea, mitt romney, president obama i should say, has really set a bar of transparency that mitt romney has not come close to meeting. the reason we're talking about this is because president obama releases his numbers. something mitt romney does not do. we encourage anyone to ask the campaign for their list of bundlers. i will also say these attacks are old, haggard, tired. we have heard them before. they have all been, most of them have been all debunked by fact checkers. so really, what we want to be talking about today is the economy, how to bring jobs back to places like cincinnati, and those different visions that the president and mitt romney have for that. >> "business week" did an assessment of the campaign advertising to date and when they look at who's been more negative than the other, the obama camp really gets bad

marks. 89% of the president's campaign ads in the 14-day period that ended july 9th carried an anti-romney message. 94% of romney's ads criticized obama, according to ad trackers. both camps have been very negative. is there any way we can stop this cycle? >> well, it is a political campaign but i will say i bet you guys will be taking a little bit of the president's event today. what the president will be talking about here in cincinnati is a very positive vision for what he wants to do for the country. that means health care, means giving a kid an opportunity to go to college, it means really fighting to keep jobs in the united states and fighting against outsourcing. that's what he's been doing at these events. because we know those are the issues people care about in places like ohio and virginia, where we were at the end of last week. >> what is your response at the end of the day to the whole fact checker support for the romney argument that he really did

leave bain capital for all intents and purposes, in february of 1999, when he went to the olympics, and that he had no managing role. that according to the "washington post," the other fact checkers, basically supporting what the romney camp have put out there despite the s.e.c. filing. >> well, as we all know, mitt romney did a round of interviews on friday where more questions were raised than answered and over the weekend, there were a series of new reports, some from the "boston globe," from bloomberg, from the huffington post, that raised additional questions. we can solve this by having mitt romney release his tax returns, something that haley barbour and bill kristol called for, and even releasing minutes of the bain meetings. the ball's in his court. we look forward to reviewing that. >> thanks so much. thanks for joining us today from the campaign trail. up next, the politico briefing. will it be open mike night in tampa? [ kate ] many women may not be properly absorbing

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the republican national convention is just over a month from now. the challenge for the romney camp is partly how to choreograph the speakers given divisions within the party and just think about that contentious field of candidates who competed for the nomination. imagine trying to award prime time to newt gingrich, herman cain, ron paul. joining me is alex burns. alex, just think of the challenge that these guys have not only in healing the wounds in the party but deciding who to give the microphone to. >> it's a tough one. we've read a lot about the challenge democrats have had in getting people to actually show up to their convention. on the republican side, the tricky part is figuring out what to do with the people who are going to be there. as you note, some of those folks are mitt romney's former opponents for the republican nomination, people like newt gingrich and rick santorum. some of them are controversial

figures in the party dating back to 2008 or earlier, george bush or dick cheney or sarah palin, who we actually don't know whether they are going to be in tampa yet. >> there always is this issue of just who gets prime time. remember back in the day, in 1992, when patrick buchanan gave a really, really tough speech to the convention, houston convention, for george herbert walker bush, and some of the bush people, some of the more moderate people in the party, were very upset about it and felt they lost control of the convention at that very moment. >> that's right. and you know, some folks are looking ahead this year to the possibility of using taped speeches for some of these more controversial speakers or perhaps for some people like former president bush, former vice president cheney, who probably would not go off script in a pat buchanan like way but are still not necessarily people who would be politically appealing for the gop to put in prime time. >> at this point, do you think, our reporting is that ron paul

is not likely to get a prime time or even any kind of speech, at this point, what do you think they'll do? will they opt for having sarah palin there because they want to fire up the base? >> i think it would be pretty surprising to see either of these people speak in prime time. one of the luxuries that republicans have, both parties really have in this modern convention age, is that most of the speeches are not televised. at the end of the day if you need to give ron paul or rand paul a speaking slot, you can do it in a benign part of the day like 10:00 a.m. when not that many people will be tuning in. >> thanks so much, alex burns. coming up next, "time's" joe klein. are the bain attacks working? is mitt romney ready to announce his running mate? [ kimi ] atti and i had always called oregon home. until i got a job in the big apple. adjusting to city life was hard for me.

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now on "andrea mitchell reports" here we go again. another heat wave has most of the country experiencing temperatures above 90 degrees today. that heat is expected to hold steady in the midwest and southern plains states and there should be some relief in the southeast and northeast later in the week. hope for that. a new report today from the national climactic data center reports that drought conditions are at their highest level since december 1956. those statistics from the palmer drought index. ongoing heat in multiple regions could make matters worse and could cost the domestic agriculture industry dearly. the drought has had a devastating effect on corn and soy bean crops in the midwest, causing costs to soar and those costs get translated throughout the economy. london calling. thousands of athletes from around the world are arriving in london today ahead of the summer's olympic games only ten days from now. the olympic village officially opened today, stretching over 11

blocks, just minutes from the heart of the city. how exciting is that. has mitt romney already decided who he wants as a running mate? talk about excitement. there is increasing speculation that he could even make the announcement this week before his trip to the olympics next week and well ahead of the republican convention at the end of august. joining me now to game it all, former pennsylvania governor ed rendell, also an nbc news political analyst, and vin weber, romney advisor, former member of congress. thank you both very much. vin, you have been close to tim pawlenty in the past, you are fellow minnesotans. what would your strategy be if you were mitt romney's advisor right now? what would be the advantage to doing it early? >> there's a lot of good candidates. secondly, we don't know, nobody knows except beth myers and mitt romney, got to put that disclaimer -- >> i would say ann romney as well. >> ann romney, too. if you pick someone like pawlenty or portman, the

immediate reaction is those are good, solid, experienced choices that know their way around the national campaign trail. the sooner, the better, because the country will think that that's a good solid choice and it will reflect well on governor romney's judgment. if you pick somebody that's more of a surprise, i can understand the logic of waiting until closer to the convention so you sort of electrify the convention but there are pros and cons to both of these and again, no one knows except the inner circle of the romney campaign and they ain't talking. >> they ain't talking but they sure were leaking last week because there did, governor rendell, seem to be a strategic leak about condoleezza rice and maybe to just test what the conservative republican response would be. i'm told that it was at least seriously considered that she did so well in park city, utah, that there were people very close to mitt romney who thought this could be a game changer, despite what happened with the last time a republican nominee tried to change the game.

>> well, you know, if i were them, i would go careful with condoleezza rice, although she is someone i admire. one, she's pro-choice and lord knows what happens on the floor of the convention with that. two, it brings up memories of the bush administration and the iraq war and all the things that people still hold against president bush. i'm not sure that's the choice i would make. i think vin made a very good point. if you're going to pick pawlenty or portman, it's a good idea to do it now, number one, it changes the bain dynamic a little bit and you know, you look at governor pawlenty or senator portman, they both have good resumes, they both have no skeletons, they both would be a positive story. plus it gives them another spokesman and maybe a spokesman who can be a little clearer and say things that governor romney himself can't say. joe biden is a tremendous asset to the president right now. he goes out there and he bangs around and says things a little

differently than the president would have the liberty of saying and he's very effective. having a portman or pawlenty, someone who is clearly qualified as a spokes person for the romney campaign right now as a partner is a real plus. >> let me just clear with both of you and our audience, the romney schedule from what we know, he is right now going to be campaigning tomorrow in pittsburgh, wednesday in ohio, thursday he's in boston. friday and saturday in new hampshire. obviously there's wiggle room there if he wanted to add something dramatic to his schedule. next week, sunday he goes to san francisco for a fund-raiser and on to nevada, we understand, then goes overseas to london. this week would be the window. clearly, if it were portman, you would do a rollout in ohio in his hometown, cincinnati, and then you would go to michigan to the romney -- >> we won't announce it in san francisco, i don't think. >> don't think it's going to be in san francisco.

>> also governor romney has a substantive trip ahead of him. he's going to britain, to israel, and he has to be prepared for meetings with leaders in those countries. there's a lot to do besides campaigning and rolling out a v.p. if he wants to do that. >> right now, he's raising money, governor rendell, with governor bobby jindal in louisiana today. they've just released that picture. they are raising some money down there. so he's also presumably on a list. >> i think everybody's on the list these days. it's a nice thing to do. it's a nice thing to do. you raise another politician's credibility with their home state voters by saying they're on the list. it's a good thing to do, an easy thing to do, and it develops friendships just by the fact that you say that person's on the list. that's a help to their standing. but i do think the romney campaign needs an additional spokesman, a spokesman who can say things that the governor himself wouldn't be comfortable in saying.

so i think if they've got a pick in mind, this wouldn't be a bad time to do it. they also need to change the dynamic. as bad a week as the president had two and a half weeks ago, this last ten days has been brutal for the romney campaign. >> let me ask both of you to take a look at the latest obama ad that was just unveiled. this is the obama camp trying to take advantage of mitt romney's vocal abilities. let's watch. ♪ or purple mountain's majesty above the fruited plain ♪ ♪ america america ♪ ♪ god shed his grace on thee and crown thy good -- >> vin, is it time to change the subject? >> i think it's a great ad. every now and then the democrats say governor romney isn't in touch with average people. that's how average people sing so that ad is fine from my

standpoint. >> ed rendell? >> he didn't blow the words. when i have to sing the national anthem in boston garden to pay off a bet on the patriots/eagles to governor romney, i had the little card for four weeks and every chance i got i pulled out the card to make sure i didn't blow the words. i didn't care how i sung. i can't sing a lick. but i was bound and determined not to mess up the words. >> you could always write them on your hand. that's been done. >> absolutely. >> ed rendell, thank you so much. vin weber, great to see you. joining me now to discuss the effectiveness of the bain attacks and other things, "time" magazine's political columnist, joe klein. you have been writing about this and your take on the bain attacks and whether or not it works and whether mitt romney has to figure out a better way around it? >> well, clearly it's working. romney's been on the defensive for two weeks now and you know, from the beginning, it seemed that the research, the focus groups and all that, were very, very powerful on this subject,

that this was a major attack that obama could launch. what we're seeing now is very similar to the major attacks that were launched in 1988 against michael dukakis by george h.w. bush and in 2004 by george w. bush against john kerry, the swift boating. all three of these politicians come from massachusetts. i wonder if it's something in the water there. but what you're seeing is very carefully constructed box. there are small nails that go into the box and there's some big rivets that go in there. the small nails are things like this controversy the last three or four days of whether he was -- whether romney was in charge of bain capital from 1999 to 2002, but the biggest piece of this argument are the tax returns. romney is going to be hammered on these tax returns until he

releases them, and a number of republicans are now saying that. >> let me show you also the way the romney campaign has counter-attacked because they have released an ad featuring journalists. watch this. >> when the president was elected, he talked about hope and change. whatever happened to hope and change? now it seems he's just coming right out of the box with these old-fashioned negative ads. >> by starting negative, by going extremely tough and extremely hard, looking conventional and frankly running ads that are inaccurate. >> barack obama's campaign now has more negative ads against its opponent than had ever been run in the history of the world. >> whatever happened to hope and change? >> i'm mitt romney. i approved this message. >> as you can imagine, joe, not very happy, the anchors and correspondents. this was bob schieffer's reaction to being put in that ad out of context. >> i have no connection with the

romney campaign. this was done without our permission. it comes as a total surprise to me. >> and nbc issued a statement on the use of david brooks off of "meet the press" saying nbc news and msnbc have not granted any campaign permission to use our news material as is our practice, we request the romney campaign refrain from using our material and mark halperin tweeted that to echo what tom brokaw said in january when his image and voice were used by the romney team, i'm extremely uncomfortable with the use of my personal image in this political ad. i do not want my role as a journalist compromised for political gain by any campaign. bottom line, does it work for them? >> it may work. by the way, my position on this is if i say it on your show and they use it, it's fair game. it's out in the public. you know, we can be a little bit thin-skinned sometimes, we journalists. at the same time, though, i think that the romney campaign has to acknowledge that it has a

real problem here with this bain situation and the only solution to get out of this is to change the subject. you can name a vice president or you can do something substantive. part of the reason why this has been so big in this campaign is that there has been so little substance coming out of the romney campaign and out of the obama campaign, for that matter. >> joe klein, there's no question, though, that schieffer and the rest were taken completely out of context. that's their basic argument. they are saying on the one hand, and what the romney folks are taking is one little clip. we have to leave it there. >> the thing is that that's done by politicians all the time. when we're on the air, we should try and be conscious of that. but it's fair game. it ain't bean bag. >> i just don't know how you can -- >> you can't. >> how you can protect yourself against being -- one phrase being taken. >> you can't. it's happened to me.

it's happened to you. i don't think my journalistic integrity was compromised by it. >> never. that will never happen. joe klein, thank you very much. up next, hillary clinton navigating today between israel and egypt. they have names like idle time books and smash records and on small business saturday they remind a nation of the benefits of shopping small. on just one day, 100 million of us joined a movement... and main street found its might again. and main street found its fight again. and we, the locals, found delight again. that's the power of all of us. that's the power of all of us. that's the membership effect of american express. chances are, you're not made of money,

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♪ and we're here to drop a rhyme about free-credit-score ♪ ♪ i'm singing free-credit-score-dot-com ♪ ♪ dot-com narrator: offer applies with enrollment in freecreditscore.com. coming up in only 15 minutes on "news nation" china syndrome. president obama about to give a big speech in ohio, where his team says he'll make the case on why mitt romney's tax proposal will lead to more jobs not in the u.s. but in china. plus, the president for the first time hosting a town hall where he will take live questions from that audience. and one of the state's most heavily republican areas. strong-arming sarah. will the republicans offer the former v.p. candidate who stole the convention show last time around, 2008, will she get a chance to speak this time? we'll see. secretary of state hillary clinton is about to speak in jerusalem as she wraps up her

first trip to israel in 22 months. it has been a very rough few days for the secretary and for u.s. policy in the middle east. her meeting with the new egyptian president morsi and military leaders in egypt failed to bring them any closer to consensus on political progress going forward and as you can see, there were protests against her motorcade, and that was before today's meetings with israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu, who is going to be welcoming mitt romney two weeks from now. romney, his former colleague and business partner from boston. aaron david miller is a middle east expert with the woodrow wilson center and served as an advisor to six secretaries of state in both political parties. thanks so much. good to see you. let's talk about the challenge right now. there's been a lot of reporting over the weekend, scott wilson in the "washington post" detailing where he believes that the administration's middle east strategy went off track very early on in the game. >> first of all, the president confronted impossible solutions to resolve. even the obama haters have to

concede that. you've got a situation in iran, sanctions aren't working, negotiations are not going to produce an agreement. the centrifuges are spinning and while the israelis and the americans agree on what the problem is, they do not agree on what the solution is. peace process. benjamin netanyahu is not prepared to pay the price politically or psychologically for a two-state solution that would meet palestinian needs and frankly, neither are the palestinians. then you've got egypt, where secretary of state, the representative on the planet for gender equality, is sitting down with a muslim brotherhood historic figure who is now the first democratically elected president of egypt, he's resigned from the muslim brotherhood but embodies his values. so there, she's caught between islamists who do not share her values and whom she does not trust, and a military that is inherently anti-democratic. i think you would have to

concede that in the world of migraines and root canals, these problems -- look, republicans, democrats, independents, sadly, you and i are going to be talking about these issues, i'm afraid, for a few more years to come. >> of course, in egypt as well, the people throwing tomatoes and shoes at the motorcade and shouting epithets at her were against her meeting with the islamist leader who is now the leader of egypt and she's carrying a billion dollars in potential aid if they create consensus and have political agreement. she's got a pretty big bounty for the egyptians whose economy is completely on its heels. >> no, it's true, but again, in egypt these days, faith identity, revolutionary spirit appear to be more important than the practical realities of governance. the good news is, look, the good news is for the first time in its modern history, egypt has

competitive politics. the bad news is that the two largest competitors, the muslim brotherhood and the military, arguably are the two least democratic forces in the country. and the secularists don't like the fact that the secretary sat down with morsi. the liberals don't. but frankly, the reality is the only democrat i saw in cairo with a big or little "d" was hillary clinton. egypt has a long way to go and we have very limited leverage, frankly, i think, to help it get there. >> today, she met with a number of israeli leaders. she met with benjamin netanyahu and will be holding this news conference coming up within a half hour, and then she gets back on her plane and flies back. so just on the face of it, she has scheduled a 27 1/2 hour day. only hillary clinton could add more time to the day. it's really pretty extraordinary, what she's challenging herself with.

one final point of course is that mitt romney is coming next week to see netanyahu and has a lot of support in the business world and the american jewish community. people who feel that the obama white house has not been leaning enough toward israel. and of course, there's a long-standing relationship in boston. long-standing relationship in boston, boston partners years ago where netanyahu worked with mitt romney on similar deals. >> i think here the republicans do have -- there is a vulnerability. the fact is the president has done an enormous amount helping guarantee security but that's not the issue. the issue is whether or not emotionally and psychologically he's perceived to be a lover of the idea of israel. like bill clinton was, even like george w. bush. here romney has a clear advantage. for a guy who is stiff and awkward, this is the one issue on which emotionally he can be the motor in chief in waiting so to speak. the president has a hard time

emoting on most issues. when it comes to israelis, there's no question he sees israel much more along the line of the continuum of america's national security interests rather than on the values interest. that comes across. i think it won't make a difference in the election but in a tight election you don't want to alienate people and give anybody an issue against which to raise money against you. the israel issue could be that. >> aaron david miller, good to see you. thanks so much. who's the boss? the london police aren't afraid to turn offer the lights on rock and roll legends. paul mccartney, bruce springsteen and t fans found that out the hard way. they pulled the plug after they had played 30 minutes past the curfew. long time springsteen guitar playing steven van zandt went on a twitter offensive after the shut down. i'm sorry, but i have to be

honest, i'm mad. like i said, it didn't ruin the night. but when i'm jamming with mccartney, don't bug me. amen. too hard." then there was a moment. when i decided to find a way to keep going. go for olympic gold and go to college too. [ male announcer ] every day we help students earn their bachelor's or master's degree for tomorrow's careers. this is your moment. let nothing stand in your way. devry university, proud to support the education of our u.s. olympic team. is as much about getting there... ♪ ...as it is being there. ♪ [ birds chirping ] away is where the days are packed with wonder... ♪ [ wind whistles ] ...and the evenings are filled with familiar comforts. find your away. for a dealer and the rv that's right for you,

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>> best wishes. my colleague tamron hall has a look at what's coming up on "news nation." >> china syndrome. president obama about to give a big speech in ohio where his team says he'll make the case on why mitt romney's tax proposal will lead to more jobs except those jobs would not be in the united states according to the president. many would be in china. for the first time the president is hosting town hall where he will take live questions from the audience in one of the state's most heavily republican areas. strong arming sarah. the republicans offer the former vp candidate who stalled the show in 2008 a chance to speak this time around or will she be shutout? with scottrader streaming quotes, any way you want. fully customize it for your trading process -- from thought to trade, on every screen. and all in real time. which makes it just like having your own trading floor, right at your fingertips. [ rodger ] at scottrade, seven dollar trades are just the start.

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hi there, everyone. i'm tamron hall. "news nation" following big developing news. in just a few moments president obama could deliver his sharpest argument to dat